Rwandans Remember The Genocide 20 Years Later

A woman walks past a banner that reads "Remembering 20 years" at the Kigali Genocide Memorial grounds as Rwanda prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in the capital, Kigali, April 2, 2014. Noor Khamis/REUTERS

20 Years After Horrors, Rwanda Claims Rebirth And Renewal -- Christian Science Monitor

April 7 marks the anniversary of a genocide that killed 800,000 people in three months. For many Rwandans now, 'the people who killed, today they can be friends, they are people we do business with.'

In a stadium that two decades ago was a refuge for people fleeing the foot-soldiers of genocide, a concert stage is taking shape out of a lattice of scaffolding erected on the close-cropped grass.

On April 7, 20 years to the day since the killings started, some 50,000 Rwandans will gather here at the Amahoro Stadium in the capital, Kigali, to hear President Paul Kagame launch weeks of events to mark the anniversary.

Dancing, singing, and speeches praising the country’s renewal are planned to entertain the thousands expected to flood the track and fill the bleachers, where people once hid from the men with the machetes.

During 100 days in 1994, more than 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda, a mass killing that ranks with the worst horrors of the 20th century and still – to foreigners at least – defines this small central African country.

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More News On The 20th Anniversary of The Rwandan Genocide

Remembering 20 Years of Rwanda Genocide: Rwanda Prepares to Commemorate 800,000 People Killed -- IBTimes
Rwanda: The last genocide of the 20th century -- France 24
Unspoken trauma paralyzes Rwanda genocide survivors -- Daily Star/AFP
Rwanda's Youth Looks Forward 20 Years After Genocide -- Voice of America
Remembering -- and trying to forget -- Rwanda's genocide, 20 years on -- CNN
Rwanda, 20 years on: how a country is rebuilding itself -- Emma Howard, The Guardian
The President’s Assassins -- Slate
THE REFUGEE: "It was like hell, blood everywhere" -- Thompson Reuters
Rwanda wasn't what I thought it would be -- LeAnn Hager, Special to CNN
What to celebrate in Rwanda's genocide anniversary -- Christian Science Monitor editorial